Buddha's Meditation and its Variants (Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore)

The daunting plethora of modern Buddhist meditation techniques has proved itself a source of bewilderment, doubt and contention. As a result meditators bandy about many terms, like “mindfulness,” “insight,” and “jhana” with little agreement on what these mean, and with much uncertainty about the relative merits of alternative techniques or doubts about the viability of their own chosen practices. In spite of this, the Buddha actually gave some us some very clear instructions about meditation, available to us today in the Pali Suttas and in the Chinese Agamas. This series of posts considers, first, the Buddha’s meditation and its unique characteristics, and, second, its later variants and how these came to differ from their origins.

Peaceful Forest Tim Schorre

• Introduction
• Discovering Buddha’s Meditation
• How to Build a Fire
• Right Effort
• Buddha’s Mindfulness Overview
• Six Remarkable Features of Buddha’s Mindfulness
• Buddha’s Samadhi: Concentration
• Buddha’s Samadhi: The Shape of the Flame
• Buddha’s Vipassana
• Summary of Buddha’s Meditation and Template for its Variants
• Buddhism in the Land of the Chopstick
• Zen Meditation: the Requisites
• Methods of Zen Meditation
• The Experience of Zen Meditation
• ... to be continued with a new posting each Uposatha Day.

About Bikkhu Cintita Dinsmore